Using a 70's receiver as a guitar amp.

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Not likely. Guitar pickups need to be connect to high impedance input of 1Meg ohm or more. our RCA line in are going to be 50K-100K, much too low. They also likely won't have enough gain.

Some of the more knowledgeable guitar guys will fill you in on details of what you need to make it work.
 
My first "guitar amp" was a Webcor tape recorder, with an internal 5x9" oval speaker. I am sure it sounded awful, but to me it was heaven.

Yes, your stereo receiver will play the guitar. WIll it be optimal? No. But if it sounds OK to you, then who are we to tell you not to use it?

I agree that some sort of guitar preamp would make it a lot better.
 
Buy a cheap ($20/25) distortion pedal at local GC or pawnshop or Craigslist or garage sale and use it as a buffer: Distortion on 0 , Volume on 10 , Tone set to Bright so it adds some "guitar EQ".

It will have the proper high input impedance and probably add a little grit and "guitar sound".
95% of simple distortion pedals are "an Op Amp plus a couple diodes" and meet the above requirements.

A simple alkaline battery is enough to power them, since you clearly are not an 8 hour a day 7 day a week rehearsing Musician or you would get a real amplifier and in practice will lastg months.
For occasional "hobby" use your pedal will be fine, last a lot, and eventually provide some Rock sound as needed.

The typical cheap Distortion pedal has this in its ADN, plus some bells and whistles:
mxr_distortion_schematic_parts_small.png


Of course, make a single mono plug to two RCA adaptor, and use Aux inputs; the Phono one being both way too sensitive (will ugly distort all the time) and RIAA equalized (tons of muddy Bass, Zero treble).
 
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Have You tried mic or instrument cable instead of the flimsy parallel RCA cable ?
You have an impedance mismatch. Phono is usually 47k impedance and Aux 10K, but You need some high impedance stage like 100K. Try a DI box in between. You could also make a small pre-amp and put it inside the guitar.
 
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